MICHELLE LOUGEE: MATERIAL NATURE  You may not know the honeycombed dinoflagellata, but Lougee does — it’s a marine microorganism. She crochets and weaves microscopic sea life out of plastic, drawing attention to the plastic pollutants threatening our oceans. Through Feb. 8. Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown. 617-923-0100, www.arsenalarts.org

ART IN BOSTON  As Keeper of Prints at Boston Public Library, Sinclair Hitchings fostered Boston artists for decades. Now Art in Boston, his organization to keep that work going, kicks off with a show featuring art from Hitchings’s own collection. Through March 1. Chandler Gallery, Maud Morgan Arts, 20 Sacramento St., Cambridge. 617-547-1647, www.maudmorgan.com Cate McQuaid

Museums

GRAPHIC ADVOCACY: INTERNATIONAL POSTERS FOR THE DIGITAL AGE 2001-2012 This sprawling exhibition, which includes 122 works by graphic artists from 32 countries, is replete with the excitement of passionate commitment. Through March 2. Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Paine Gallery. 617-879-7333, www.massart.edu/Galleries Mark Feeney

THIS WILL HAVE BEEN: ART, LOVE, AND POLITICS IN THE 1980s An overview of some of the main currents of art in the 1980s. Through March 3. Institute of Contemporary Art. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org Sebastian Smee

RICHARD YARDE: SELECTED WORK  Yarde, who died in 2011 at 72, was a master watercolorist. Inspired by his mother’s quilt patterns, he built vibrant, unusually large-scale watercolors over grids, in work that often chronicled African-American life. Through March 24. Danforth Museum of Art, 123 Union Ave., Framingham. 508-620-0050, www.danforthmuseum.org

MICKALENE THOMAS Thomas is a painter on the rise, mixing up 1970s designer kitsch with weighty art-historical themes, while upending tired old power structures. She does it all with painterly panache, fragmenting interiors and making patterns pop. Through April 7. Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org Cate McQuaid